The Radical Sabbatical

The Radical Sabbatical by Emma Rosen champions the importance of young people and professionals gaining work experience.

Following university, Emma landed a place on a highly-esteemed graduate scheme within the public sector, but it wasn’t long before she felt stifled by bureaucracy and unfulfilled from barely being able to make a social impact within her role.

While trying to work out what career she should move into instead, it dawned on her that there wasn’t one, singular career path that she wanted to pursue. In fact there were many different jobs and industries that she was interested in exploring. Why not give them all a try? That way she could minimise the risk of making another uninformed decision and instead pursue a career that she knew she was interested in, based on gaining first-hand experience in that area.

That was the start of her 25before25 project, in which she tried out 25 different careers within the space of 12 months, before her 25thbirthday. The book The Radical Sabbaticalis an intelligently-written and thoughtful round-up that details exactly every step of the project, from where the idea came from, to how she organised the work experience placements, and the portfolio career she’s since built.

Her book draws parallels with Emma Gannon’s The Multi-Hyphen Method, as they both argue that sticking to one career throughout your working life is an outdated system that no longer fits within our evolving work culture. Their books are both manifestos for the portfolio career; which is also known as the multi-hyphen multi-passion or multi-potentialite method – meaning that a person has several professional interests and works in a number of roles.

As well as being an attractive option for individuals who don’t want to specialise within one area, the portfolio career has numerous upsides, including continual skills development that boost competitiveness amongst peers, and making smarter financial decisions by diversifying income streams. Emma also works as a writer, speaker, and she campaigns for portfolio careers and more diverse careers education for young people. Learn more about her work experience placements at 25before25.co.uk.